Choiseul-Guffier, Sofia

She was born in the city of Lida , which was then part of the Commonwealth (five years after her birth, this city was annexed to the Russian Empire during the third partition of Poland ). The daughter of Count Ignatius Tizengauz (1760-1822) from his marriage to Marianna Przhezdetskaya (1763-1843). My mother was the granddaughter of the Lithuanian Chancellor and niece of Princess Elena Radziwill .

Her parents divorced when she was a child. She grew up in a family of relatives in an estate near Vilna . She received education corresponding to her aristocratic status: general education subjects, music and drawing were taught to her by home teachers. The famous Lithuanian artist, future professor of painting at Vilnius University Jan Rustem was the home drawing teacher of young Sofia. In the house of Sofia they spoke French and this language became her mother tongue.

In the spring of 1812, the young Countess Sofia met the Russian Emperor Alexander I. They developed friendly relations that were maintained until the end of the life of the Russian monarch. One of the few representatives of the Polish-Lithuanian aristocracy, she was awarded the ladies' court rank in the retinue of the Russian empresses Elizabeth Alekseevna (wife of Alexander I) and Maria Fedorovna (mother of Alexander I) and received the right to wear the corresponding maid of honor (diamond hairpin in the form of monograms of the empresses of Russia )

Sofia Tiesenhausen survived the French occupation and liberation of the Russian army in Vilna . Met with Napoleon I , who visited Vilna. The pride and dignity with which the young Polish-Lithuanian countess kept in contact with the emperor of France in Vilno occupied by him, as well as her open demonstration of sympathy for the Russian court (Sofia basically came to a meeting with Napoleon in a dress with a diamond maid of honor with monograms of Russian empresses) made her act very famous and popular in Russian society and the Russian army. The countess's undisguised pro-Russian patriotism was of particular respect. To Napoleon’s direct question: "Are you a Russian lady?" She answered: "I have no honor to be Russian." While many representatives of the Polish and Lithuanian aristocracy were anti-Russian and supported the French occupation.

 

Cipher maid of honor of the Russian empresses Elizabeth Alekseevna and Maria Fedorovna

During his stay in Vilna, Napoleon demanded that the ladies appear at the castle reception. <...> Seeing that I can’t avoid the performance, I announced my intention to appear in the castle with a code . <...> Never before have I put on my cipher with such pleasure, I will even say it with pride.
I went to the castle with several ladies from my friends who used all their efforts to convince me to remove the code. They tried to scare me, saying that Napoleon is a terrible person <...> Nothing could make me change my mind. <...> on my part, it would be as cowardly as it was ungrateful to discard, in the presence of a happy and triumphant adversary, the benevolence of the sovereign so worthy to be loved, and moreover, at that very moment when this sovereign seemed to be pursued by fate. My whole heart was indignant at the mere thought. <...>
When they called me Napoleon, his gaze fixed on my diamond cipher with a blue cockade.
“What kind of order do you have?” He asked.
- "Code of Their Majesties, Russian Empresses."
“So you are a Russian lady?”

“No, Your Majesty, I have no honor to be Russian.”

- Choiselle-Gufier Sofia. Historical memoirs about Emperor Alexander and his court

After the liberation of Vilna, Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov , Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, visited Countess Sophia Tiesenhausen, whom he had known for a long time. He expressed admiration for her behavior at the performance of Napoleon and gave an evening in Vilna in her honor, introducing Sofia to the entire Russian generals with the words: “Here is a young countess wearing a code in front of Napoleon”.

After the war, she married the son of a French diplomat and cultural figure Count Auguste de Choiselle-Guffier Anthony Ludwig Octavius Choiselle-Guffier (1773-1840) ^[2] . The wedding was February 3, 1818 in the church of St. Matthew at the Rokiskis estate. The marriage was not very happy. She lived with her husband in France, where she was introduced to the court of Louis XVIII . She was acquainted with Alexander Dumas father and many other prominent European writers of his time. Widowed, in the summer and spring she lived in her estate Plateliai , where she rebuilt the central building according to her design. In the cold season, traveled a lot in Europe. The last years she lived in Nice , where she died on May 28, 1878 .

The godfather of her only son Alexander (1821–1896) was Russian Emperor Alexander I. The village of Lit was named in honor of their son . Aleksandravas (now - in the Plunge district of Telšiai county of Lithuania).

Sophia Choiseul-Gufier is one of the first women writers in the history of Lithuania. She wrote in French. Most of her works are historical novels that are based on real events and are dedicated to the life of women of her modern Polish-Lithuanian nobility of the Russian Empire. In one of her first stories, Wanda and Radiger, she expressed her hope for the revival of Poland thanks to Napoleon.

Another interesting historical source is her memoirs, “Memoirs of Countess Choiselle-Guffier about Emperor Alexander I and Emperor Napoleon” (1st edition - 1829 , also published in 1862 and 1879 ), telling about the time of the reign of Alexander I, the Patriotic War of 1812 and overseas campaigns of the Russian army of 1813-1814 through the prism of the views of the Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman, supporting the Russian emperor and his policy.

Significant attention in the countess's memoirs was given to emperors Alexander I and Napoleon I, as well as field marshal M.I. Kutuzov , with whom she was personally acquainted. The fate of Vilna during the French occupation and liberation by the Russian army during the Patriotic War of 1812 is also described (the countess witnessed these events).

• Choiselle-Gufier Sofia. Historical memoirs about Emperor Alexander and his court.